Back up Strimzi-managed Kafka on Kubernetes

Strimzi-native, not bolted on​

If you run Apache Kafka on Kubernetes with Strimzi, the Strimzi Backup Operator fits your existing model. Instead of configuring bootstrap servers and TLS material by hand, it reads connection details, cluster CA certificates, and KafkaUser credentials directly from your Strimzi Kafka and KafkaUser resources.

Backups and restores are declared as custom resources — KafkaBackup and KafkaRestore in the kafkabackup.com/v1alpha1 API group — so they live in Git alongside the rest of your cluster config. The operator runs each one as a Kubernetes Job that executes the kafka-backup CLI, so every run is inspectable with kubectl get jobs,pods.

Install and take a scheduled backup​

Install the operator with Helm, then apply a KafkaBackup that references your Strimzi cluster and a storage backend. A schedule.cron field turns it into a recurring backup.

helm repo add oso-devops https://osodevops.github.io/helm-charts/
helm repo update

helm install strimzi-backup-operator oso-devops/strimzi-backup-operator \
--namespace kafka \
--create-namespace

apiVersion: kafkabackup.com/v1alpha1
kind: KafkaBackup
metadata:
name: daily-backup
namespace: kafka
spec:
strimziClusterRef:
  name: my-cluster        # your Strimzi Kafka CR
schedule:
  cron: "0 2 * * *"
backoffLimit: 3
storage:
  type: s3
  s3:
    bucket: my-kafka-backups
    region: eu-west-1

apiVersion: kafkabackup.com/v1alpha1
kind: KafkaRestore
metadata:
name: restore-orders
namespace: kafka
spec:
strimziClusterRef:
  name: my-cluster
backupRef:
  name: daily-backup
  backupId: backup-20260610-020000
topics:
  include:
    - orders-*

Safe restores by default​

A KafkaRestore runs exactly once. Because a restore appends to the target topics, the operator never re-creates a completed restore Job — you delete and recreate the resource to run it again. Backups default to backoffLimit: 3 because re-running a backup is safe, while restores default to a single attempt to avoid duplicating records. The restore Jobs and retry behavior reference covers backoffLimit, status conditions, and cleanup semantics in full.

Running Kafka outside Strimzi — MSK, Confluent, or self-managed? Use the generic OSO Kafka Backup Operator instead; it targets any Kafka reachable over the network.